Some good junior cricket on

For those who enjoy their cricket and looking for something to do during their holidays there is some good junior cricket on the go at the moment at KES and St Johns in Johannesburg.

U19 touring teams from India and Sri Lanka are playing against the cream of the crop from South Africa U17, U19 and university sides.

Yesterday the Sri Lankan side looked liked they were cruising to victory against one of the South African teams and then promptly lost 8 wickets for 40 runs to be wiped out in spectacular fashion. The grounds at KES look amazing at the moment and perfect place to pull up a chair and come and cheer for SA.

Unbelievable

I have just read that Wayne Parnell has been dropped from the Proteas test side for the next two test matches against England with the selectors reducing the squad from 15 to 14.

Pardon my ignorance but we are battling to take 20 test wickets on a pitch which has been relatively helpful to seamers and we are choosing to exclude probably the best left-arm quick in the country at the moment?

That's bizarre.

Getting interesting

The first test match between England and South Africa at Centurion is suddenly getting interesting. If it hadn't been for a 109 run stand between Graeme Swann and James Anderson for the 9th wicket then the Proteas would have had a very comfortable lead.

Fortunately this English team has come to fight and sure enough they hung in there and then Anderson knocked Ashwell Prince over for a duck.

Match summary - we're going into day 4 of the test match with the Proteas 71 runs ahead and 9 wickets in hand.

Both Swann and Paul Harris (who picked up a fifer and gave a nice boost to my "Dream Team") have bowled really well.

Its unusual to see the Centurion Park being this spinner friendly but it proves my argument earlier about having variety in the attack.

Gonna be an interesting day of cricket that's for sure.

Uninspired first test

The first test match between England and South Africa at Centurion Park has been an uninspirational affair.

The home team has set a first innings score of 418 thanks to a Jacques Kallis century and some nice contributions from Prince, Duminy, Boucher and some stubborn contributions from Paul Harris and Friedel De Wet at the bottom of the order.

De Wet then managed to get Alastair Cook out to leave the poms at 88/1 at the end of the second day.

The things that stood out for me:

• A scoring rate of 2.73 per over is really slow for the Proteas and while it might be enough runs to put pressure on the English its not exactly setting the world alight... especially considering that Centurion Park is supposed to be a good batting strip
• The English bowled aggressively - no shortage of bouncers from their quicks
• I like this scrapping spirit - maybe it could be an interesting test match series after all
  
• De Wet hasn't exactly looked on song on his debut - why didn't Morkel take the new ball?
• I still think we are going to regret that we didn't play Parnell
• Graeme Swann bowled well - will be interesting to see how Harris does on this track

Anyway we will keep on watching to see how it all plays out

Parnell travesty

Wayne Parnell not playing in the first test against England at Centurion Park is an absolute travesty of justice and in my opinion a really short-sighted decision that the SA management will regret.

We are going into this test match with three right arm seamers (Steyn, Ntini and presumably Morne Morkel) and we have Paul Harris holding up one end as a spinner.

South Africa are almost certainly going to be without Jacques Kallis from a bowling perspective and we have battled to take 20 wickets in a test match for a while.

Despite this we choose not to include the left-arm seamer who has been a brilliant addition to our ODI setup over the last 12 months? Bizarre...

For sure Steyn is still the premier fast bowler in the side and Ntini has 99 caps to his name but if you have to toss-up Morkel vs Parnell on current form and what they bring to the side, you'd be hard pushed to say that Parnell deserves to draw the short-straw.

There are plenty of reasons not to rush a young fast bowler and not put too much pressure on him, but Parnell has proven he has what it takes to play at international level and by not including him we have robbed ourselves of some much needed variety in our attack.

In Paul Harris you have a great spinner who can plug up one end so you won't have a case where a young fast bowler is going to be toiling for hours on end in the sun and taking its toll on his body. But you lose some of your effectiveness if you are going to tie up one end and then charge in with three right-arm quicks for two and a half days.

Don't get me wrong, I am a big Morne Morkel fan and think he has plenty to offer SA cricket, I am just concerned that the balance of the side is not exactly there if he is given preference over Parnell.

England vs South Africa - Dream Team first test match

So I've picked my Dream Team side for the first Proteas vs England test match side and I won't lie, I am surprised at the number of English players who made my lineup...

So here goes:

Graeme Smith (Captain)
Andrew Strauss
Eoin Morgan
Jonathan Trott
Jacques Kallis (Allrounder)
JP Duminy (Allrounder)
Matt Prior (keeper)
Wayne Parnell (assuming he will get a test cap)
Paul Harris
Stuart Broad
James Anderson

Will be an interesting start to this series - Pick your team here.

Cricket Dream Teams

Forget The Ashes, it's time for two of cricket's oldest rivals to clash as the Proteas prepare to defend their honour in a home Test
series against England. This Test series is sure to have an extra edge to it with the return of home-grown stars Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Strauss and Jonathon Trott for England.

Now you can follow the action by selecting your own Dream Team forthe upcoming Test series. You can select up to 8 players per country with a maximum of 8 transfers per round. Each of the 4 Test matches counts as an individual round.

We have a new login process in place that gives you the benefit of easy access to all upcoming Dream Teams games and to some fantastic
SuperSport services. Dream Team Managers must first register and login at SuperSport.com

Then enter your team at http://dreamteams.supersport.com/cricket

The Proteas Test Series Dream Teams starts on Wednesday 16 December at 10:30 SA time (08:30 GMT) with the first Test of the 4 match series taking place at Centurion.